Killer Bay

Of Rats and Men

"Adalet, thank God you're here! No one is going to get any sleep tonight! The good thing is, I think we evacuated Jazz Town's residents just in time. The storm is almost on us!" Andrea says as she and the captain stood beside the bay windows, "but the flood defences are weakening, and we're getting reports that looters are taking over the streets! As if that's not enough, I just got word that a prisoner has taken advantage of the chaos to escape from the penitentiary!"

"Whoa," Frank's eyes widened, "it sounds like we're losing control of Jazz Town!"

"That's exactly why I need Adalet to patrol the streets," she responded, "and you're going too, Frank. There's bound to be trouble out there tonight!

"Don't worry, Andrea. If there's trouble, I'll be staying out of it!" he vowed.

Later, on the streets of Jazz Town...

"Those looters had better not mess with us, eh Adalet?" Frank smirks, "we'll show them who's boss."

SCREEAAAM!

"What was that?! Who's there?!" he demanded as Adalet and he turned to the source of the scream. Which turned out to be a tall woman dressed in flashy clothes and the biggest, pinkest curls on their head.

"Hiiii! Get out of my way! Even in these heels, I'm getting far away from that place!" the woman cried in a much deeper voice than they had been expecting.

"What the...?! What happened Ma'am... I mean Sir... I mean just what happened?!" Frank asks looking for the fire.

"In the theatre," she pointed to the building behind her, "there's a... it's disgusting! More disgusting than wearing clogs to a wedding!"

"Frank?" Adalet says to her partner.

"Oh great," the senior detective grumbles, "you're going to tell me to come with you to investigate that theatre, aren't you Adalet?! So much for keeping out of trouble!"

Frank and Adalet ran in the direction that the drag queen had been pointing in. They entered through the broken front doors and hurried down the lobby to the theatre stage. The display that had been set on the stage was not one they would soon forget. A man in an orange jumpsuit was tied to a plush pink chair on center stage, a rough hole had been made in his chest, and dozens of rats were swarming his feet and lap. As the cops descended the stairs to the stage, Adalet picked up a pile of broken metals that had been dropped, possibly by the man's killer.

"All the alcohol in the world isn't going to get that image out of my head! Who would be sick enough to tie someone to a chair and leave them to the rats?!" Frank sighed as he pulls out his phone to call Roxie, "at least we know who the victim is, his jumpsuit has his name on it: "Scott Lee Allan"."

"Frank, that not any jumpsuit, it's a prison uniform!" Adalet corrected, "this has to be the escaped prisoner Andrea told us about! After breaking out, he must have come to Jazz Town!"

"That broken jewelry next to an escaped convict is pretty suspect, I agree. But with your skills I bet you can get it fixed in no time," he smirked as he listened to the ringing tone, "then there's that "lady" waiting outside. This is a bit weird Adalet, but did you think she was a little bit... manly?"

"I think she was born a man," she replies.

"Oh, I get it! She's a man who wears women's clothing! A drag queen! Now that's clear... sort of," he frowned his brows, "let's find out what she was doing in that theatre!"

As Frank talked on the phone with the coroner, Adalet repaired the broken jewelry they had found near the body. It was a golden necklace with a large embroidered crest in the center of the chest plate. The lion was framed by dangling strings of pearls ending in sapphires.